Except for his 1834–1836 first clerical assignment, Maurice's career can be divided between his conflicted years in London (1836–1866) and his peaceful years in Cambridge (1866–1872) For his first clerical assignment, Maurice served an assistant
curacy in
Bubbenhall in Warwickshire from 1834 until 1836. During his time in Bubbenhall, he began writing on the topic of "moral and metaphysical philosophy". Writing on this topic by "revision and expansion" continued the rest of his life until the publication of
Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy, 2 vols in 1871–1872, the year of his death. Also, Maurice's novel
Eustace Conway, begun , was published in 1834 and was praised by
Samuel Taylor Coleridge. in
Ford Madox Brown's painting
Work (detail) In June 1837, Maurice met Anna Eleanor Barton, a daughter of General
Charles Barton. They became engaged and were married on 7 October 1837. In 1838, the first edition of
The Kingdom of Christ was published. It was "one of his most significant works". A second enlarged edition was published in 1842 and a third edition in 1883. For Maurice the signs of this kingdom are "the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist, to which must be added the creeds, the liturgy, the episcopate, and the scriptures—in fact, all the marks of catholicity as exemplified in the Church of England." The book was met with criticism when published, a criticism "that lasted throughout Maurice's career."
London Maurice served as editor of the
Educational Magazine during its entire 1839–1841 existence. He argued that "the school system should not be transferred from the church to the state". Maurice was elected professor of English literature and history at
King's College, London, in 1840. When the college added a theological department in 1846, he became a professor there also. That same year Maurice was elected chaplain of
Lincoln's Inn and resigned the chaplaincy at Guy's Hospital. and the
Working Men's College in 1854. In 1847, Maurice and "most of his brother-professors" at King's College formed a Committee on Education for the education of governesses. This committee joined a scheme for establishing a College for Women that resulted in the founding of Queen's College. Maurice was its first principal. The college was "empowered to grant certificates of qualification 'to governesses' and 'to open classes in all branches of female education'." One of the early graduates of Queen's College who was influenced by Maurice was
Matilda Ellen Bishop who became the first principal of
Royal Holloway College. On 4 July 1849, Maurice remarried, this time to Georgiana Hare. '''Dismissal from King's College''' "Maurice was dismissed from his professorships because of his leadership in the Christian Socialist Movement, and because of the supposed unorthodoxy of his
Theological Essays (1853)." His work
The Kingdom of Christ had evoked virulent criticism. The publication of his
Theological Essays in 1853 evoked even more and precipitated his dismissal from King's College. At the instigation of
Richard William Jelf, the Principal of the college, the Council of the college asked Maurice to resign. He refused and demanded that he be either "acquitted or dismissed." He was dismissed. To prevent the controversy from affecting Queen's College, Maurice "severed his relations" with it. The public and his friends were strongly in support of Maurice. His friends "looked up to him with the reverence due to a great spiritual teacher". They were devoted to him and wanted to protect Maurice against his opponents. '''Working Men's College''' Although his relations with King's College and Queen's College had been severed, Maurice continued to work for the education of workers. In February 1854, he developed plans for a
Working Men's College. Maurice gained enough support for the college by giving lectures that by 30 October 1854, the college opened with over 130 students. "Maurice became principal, and took an active part both in teaching and superintending during the rest of his life in London." Maurice's teaching led to some "abortive attempts at co-operation among working men" and to the more enduring
Christian Socialism movement and the Society for Promoting Working Men's Associations. During the invasion scare of 1859–60, Thomas Hughes raised the
19th (Bloomsbury) Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps from among the students of the Working Men's College, and Denison became the battalion's
Honorary Chaplain on 7 December 1860. In July 1860, in spite of controversy, Maurice was appointed to the benefice of the chapel of
St Peter, Vere Street,
Marylebone. He held the position until 1869.
Cambridge University "On 25 October 1866 Maurice was elected to the
Knightbridge professorship of casuistry, moral theology, and moral philosophy at [the University of] Cambridge." This professorship was the "highest preferment" Maurice attained. Among his books he cited in his application, were his
Theological Essays and
What is Revelation? that had evoked opposition elsewhere. But at Cambridge, Maurice was "almost unanimously elected" to the faculty. Maurice was "warmly received" at Cambridge, where "there were no doubts of his sufficient orthodoxy". While teaching at Cambridge, Maurice continued as the Working Men's College principal, though he was there less often. At first, he retained the Vere Street, London, curacy which entailed a weekly rail trip to London to officiate at services and preach. When this proved too strenuous, upon medical advice, Maurice resigned this curacy in October 1869. In 1870, by accepting the offer of
St Edward's, Cambridge, where he had "an opportunity for preaching to an intelligent audience" with few pastoral duties, albeit with no stipend. In July 1871, Maurice accepted the Cambridge preachership at Whitehall. "He was a man to whom other men, no matter how much they might differ from him, would listen."
Royal commissioner In spite of declining health, in 1870 Maurice agreed to serve on the Royal Commission regarding the Contagious Diseases Act of 1871, and travelled to London for the meetings. "The Commission consisted of twenty-three men, including ten parliamentarians (from both Houses), some clergy, and some eminent scientists (such as T.H. Huxley)." Dean
Francis Close wrote a monograph about the proceedings of the royal commission. The issue was whether earlier acts legalising and policing prostitution for the armed forces should be repealed. Close quoted a commission member's speech to the House of Commons that praised Maurice as a "model Royal Commissioner". Close ended his monograph with these words: "Professor Maurice remained firmly and conscientiously opposed to the Acts to the very last."
Final years In spite of terminal illness, Maurice continued giving his professorial lectures, trying to know his students personally and completing his
Metaphysical and Moral Philosophy (2 vols., 1871–1872). He also continued preaching (at Whitehall from November 1871 to January 1872 and two university sermons in November). His final sermon was 11 February 1872 in St Edward's. On 30 March he resigned from St Edward's. Very weak and mentally depressed, on Easter Monday, 1 April 1872, after receiving Holy Communion, with great effort he pronounced the blessing, became unconscious and died.
Conflicting opinions of Maurice's thinking In a letter of 2 April 1833 to
Richard Chenevix Trench, Maurice lamented the current "spirit" of "conflicting opinions" that "cramps our energies" and "kills our life". In spite of his lamenting "contradictory opinions", that term precisely described reactions to Maurice. Maurice's writings, lectures, and sermons spawned conflicting opinions.
Julius Hare considered him "the greatest mind since
Plato", but
John Ruskin thought him "by nature puzzle-headed and indeed wrong-headed;" while
John Stuart Mill considered that "there was more intellectual power wasted in Maurice than in any other of my contemporaries".
Hugh Walker in a study of Victorian literature found other examples of conflicting opinions. •
Charles Kingsley pronounced Maurice "a great and rare thinker". •
Aubrey Thomas de Vere compared listening to Maurice to "eating pea-soup with a fork". •
Matthew Arnold spoke of Maurice as "always beating the bush with profound emotion, but never starting the hare". One important literary and theological figure who was favourably impressed by Maurice was
Charles Dodgson, also known as Lewis Carroll. Dodgson wrote about attending morning and afternoon services at Vere Street at which Maurice preached both times with the comment, "I like his sermons very much". Maurice held the benefice of St Peter's, Vere Street from 1860 to 1869.
M. E. Grant Duff, in his diary for 22 April 1855, wrote that he "went, as usual about this time, to hear F. D. Maurice preach at Lincoln's Inn. I suppose I must have heard him, first and last, some thirty or forty times, and never carried away one clear idea, or even the impression that he had more than the faintest conception of what he himself meant."
John Henry Newman described Maurice as a man of "great power" and of "great earnestness". However, Newman found Maurice so "hazy" that he "lost interest in his writings". In the United States,
The National Quarterly Review and Religious Magazine, Volume 38 (January 1879), contained this appreciation of Maurice. "Mr. Maurice's characteristics are well known and becoming every year more highly appreciated—broad catholicity, keenness of insight, powerful mental grasp, fearlessness of utterance and devoutness of spirit."
Leslie Stephen in
The English Utilitarians, Vol. 3, John Stuart Mill. (1900), wrote "Maurice is equally opposed to the sacerdotalism which makes the essence of religion consist in a magical removal of penalties instead of a 'regeneration' of the nature. He takes what may be vaguely called the 'subjective' view of religion, and sympathises with Schleiermacher's statement that piety is 'neither a knowing nor a doing, but an inclination and determination of the feelings' ". ==Social activism==